Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Alex Bates at Forge of Ice is brilliant at coming up with bizarre minis that I don't know I need until I see them. This entelodont, sometimes falsely called a "hell-pig" or "terminator-pig", is just such a miniature. Alex had asked me to design a few bases for him so I used my laser cutter to create a tile pattern and then sculpted vines to show an ancient civilization being overtaken by jungle.

As part of my compensation for the bases Alex sent me two of the entelodonts so I quickly assembled and painted one. Assembly is a breeze, pin the head on and add a bit of green stuff to soften the join. Then just drybrushing and washing to capture the fur texture. I based the color scheme on this excellent rendering by Masato Hattori.

The base was painted and then had static grass and jute twine added.

Overall this is a solid mini that reads perfectly as the overpowered beast it's meant to represent. Matt truly captured the musculature and forward motion of such a beast. It was a blast to paint.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Needed a bit of hobby meditation last weekend so I built and painted this vintage Battletech Demolisher. It came with a sprue of bits like the pintle mounted guns and the strange "horns". It also included cast metal rods to use for smaller gun barrels but I just used brass wire.

The camo scheme just came together as I was painting, I didn't start out with a plan other than I wanted something dark red. Originally this was going to be for a Horizon Wars Martian army but I had some small House Kurita decals so it went right back to the Battletech universe.

Thse are still available from Iron Wind Metals but are a bit pricey at almost $30us. I'm glad I found mine in my lead horde.